Author: Cheryl Krauter

In Odyssey of Ashes: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Letting Go, Cheryl Krauter gives readers an intimate look into her life during her time of greatest suffering, the time when she lost her husband.

Krauter's husband, John died in their home in the middle of the night. The death was very sudden, and Cheryl was heavily traumatized by shock. After such a loss, most of us would take a while to recover, but Cheryl soon learns that her husband has won a raffle for a fly-fishing trip that he had entered before his untimely death. 

Cheryl decides that this trip would be a perfect opportunity to spread her husband's ashes over the river that he loved so much in life, Madison river in Montana. Although Cheryl had been to Madison river once before in 1988, this was almost thirty years later and she was now alone and grieving her husband. Although she feels out of place with the group of middle-aged men who are also taking the trip, Cheryl soon finds herself making her way up the river, remembering her life with her husband and their son, and finding peace and closure. 

This is an incredibly moving memoir and one that readers everywhere will enjoy. The main story consists of Cheryl looking back on her time in Montana, and this is punctuated by flashbacks of her life with her husband, John. I found these flashback's to be my favorite part of the memoir. Cheryl and her husband were clearly so in love with each other, it made his loss all the more heartbreaking. 

There were many times that I teared up while reading Odyssey of Ashes. The emotion that Cheryl Krauter writes with reminds me of people that I have lost in my own life. This memoir reminded me how lucky we are to have the time that we do with the people that we love most, and how important it is to remember them after they are gone. They are still here in our memories.

About Dana Claire

When author Dana Claire had several poems published as an elementary school student, she was hooked and writing became her passion. A shared dream of hers and her mother’s, she promised her dying mother that she would become a published author and that dream has been realized with The Connection.

Dana believes that a good story is made through strong character development; when readers become attached to the characters’ emotional state and are invested in their objectives. She believes that the beauty of reading is that one can live a hundred lives within the stories of books. Her own stories come to her in her dreams, and she wakes up with book ideas.

Dana’s family is very supportive of her writing and the creativity and sentiment driving it. Enjoying bicoastal living between Los Angeles and New York, Dana says she “lives the best romance in the world being married to the most amazing man she could ever ask for.” The Connection was her debut YA novel, the first volume in a planned trilogy. The Awakening is the second volume.  She is also the author of The Reclaimed Kingdom, a YA fantasy romance novel. You can find out more about Dana Claire and her books on her website